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This story was written for the Perth Modernian Society’s August 2024 newsletter.  Sources are under "Links".

ARTHUR NICOLAY (PMS 1937-38) AND IAN CASS (1935-36)

This is the story of two Perth Modern School boys whose time at the school in the 1930’s did not coincide.  However, their service in two RAAF squadrons did overlap, and, by one of those strange coincidences of life, they spent their last few hours flying on the same day, on the same operation, and in the same aircraft.

Arthur Renfred Nicolay was a Bayswater boy, born on 22 August 1920 to Arthur and Violet. He completed his Junior Certificate in nine subjects at Perth Boys School in 1936 and commenced fourth year at Modern School in February 1937. His teachers said that he had ability but not the interest.  He left the school in June 1938 to begin employment at Boans (now Myer) as an Advertising assistant. While there he engaged in a correspondence course in marketing and advertising so he may have found something academic that interested him.  He certainly found it in the Air Force.

Arthur joined the RAAF on 27 April 1940.  Of average height and weight with fair hair and grey eyes, he worked his way through various Air Force training courses in 1940 at Maylands, Essendon and Pt Cooke.  He was reclassified on 12 January 1941 as an Airman Pilot qualified to fly Avro Ansons and promoted to Sergeant, all at the age of 20.  He undertook a navigation course at Laverton in Victoria and was posted on 12 January 1941 to No. 14 Squadron at Pearce, 50 kilometres north of Perth, where he learned to fly Lockheed Hudson light bombers.  While at Pearce he was promoted to Pilot Officer on 1 June 1941 and to Flying Officer on 1 December 1941.

William Ian Cass was born in Busselton on 5 February 1922 to parents Fred and Winifred.  He enrolled at Perth Modern School on 5 February 1935, his 13th birthday.  The family was then living in the area of West Subiaco now known as Shenton Park.  Ian’s mother died four months later on 4 June at the age of 33.  This tragedy may have adversely affected Ian’s schoolwork as his teachers reported in August that he had “gone back considerably – seems to have lost interest.”  He failed his final first-year exams in 1935 and his second-year exams in 1936.  He left the school in December 1936 at age 14, moved to Kalgoorlie where his father was living, attended Eastern Goldfields High School in 1937 and passed his Junior exams in six subjects in November.  He worked as a junior clerk for 18 months before joining the Air Force.

A tall, well-built lad, Ian enlisted in the RAAF in Perth on 9 December 1940 when he was 18.  He trained as a Wireless Operator/Air Gunner in Ballarat, Victoria, during the first six months of 1941.  After graduation he was posted in August to No. 14 Squadron at Pearce.

No. 14 Squadron

The paths of Arthur and Ian crossed at Pearce when Ian arrived there on 10 August 1941, seven months after Arthur, and they served together for the rest of their young lives.  Ian was a Sergeant and Arthur was an officer so they would have been in different messes and living quarters.  However, it is likely that they flew as part of the same four-man crew from time to time as part of their training in the RAAF’s newly acquired Lockheed Hudson bombers (see photo below).  One wonders whether their conversations ever caused them to realise they both attended Modern School in the 1930’s. 

Arthur’s commanding officer at Pearce provided a glimpse into the man that Arthur had become.  In his Officer’s Confidential Report dated 16 February 1942, just prior to Arthur’s departure for New Guinea, he wrote:

“Is fond of music and a good pianist.  A keen and reliable Hudson captain with plenty of stamina and determination for intensive flying operations.  Tends slightly towards the larrikin type.”

No. 32 Squadron

No. 32 Squadron was created on 21 February 1942 in Pt Moresby and Ian and Arthur were posted there as part of the squadron’s initial establishment.  The squadron was based at the notorious 7-Mile Drome where conditions were primitive, the weather was hot and humid, the food was bad, the rain was torrential and mud was everywhere – where they lived, ate and slept.  To make matters worse, the airfield was regularly bombed and strafed by the crack Japanese air wing based in Lae on the north-west coast. 

Less than a fortnight after arriving in Pt Moresby, five of the squadron’s Hudson bombers were tasked with the bombing of the Japanese air base at Gasmata on New Britain, a distance of 490 kilometres.  Arthur was the pilot of Hudson A16-101 and Ian was the Wireless Operator/Air Gunner. 

The five aircraft took off just after 10pm on 3 March 1942.  One turned back when it flew into a tropical storm and the other four bombed the target soon after midnight.  Losses were high with two of the aircraft being shot down by Japanese anti-aircraft fire.  One of those was A16-101. 

After the war, an RAAF Searcher Team led by legendary Squadron Leader Keith Rundle travelled twice to the area and found the wrecks of both aircraft, largely due to the substantial assistance of the local inhabitants.  A16-101 was lying off the coast on a reef in a metre of water.  There was no evidence of human remains. 

The crews are remembered on the Rabaul War Memorial and at the Australian War Memorial in Canberra.  Arthur was 21 when he died and Ian had just turned 20.

LEST WE FORGET